CN211822190U - Vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a vehicle lamp system with millimeter wave radar, which mainly arranges the vehicle lamp system on a vehicle carrier, wherein the vehicle lamp mainly comprises an optical module and at least one millimeter wave radar module, the millimeter wave radar module can emit and receive a millimeter wave signal, so that the vehicle lamp system can carry out radar detection through the millimeter wave signal to generate driving information for a driver to refer to.

Description

Vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp system having millimeter wave radar that shares a light source module and a reflector of a vehicular lamp.

Background

With the rise of the car networking and the automatic driving technology, more and more vehicles start to lead in the car radar equipment, the car radar can detect the position, distance and speed of objects outside the vehicle, higher-order people can identify the object type or image according to radar signals, so that drivers can obtain more driving information for reference.

The conventional vehicle-mounted radar is usually used for assisting the vehicle ranging, wherein the vehicle-mounted radar is usually installed at the position of the bumper, and this way requires an additional installation hole on the bumper, which is a great safety concern for the bumper structure, and thus, because of the space limitation of the vehicle-mounted radar, generally, only a PCB microstrip antenna (microstrip antenna) can be used to directly transmit and receive radio waves, but a parabolic antenna with high directivity cannot be used to increase the gain, so the angle and resolution of the radar are not easily increased, and meanwhile, the farthest distance that the radar can detect is limited by the insufficient aperture of the antenna, although the inventor sets the Millimeter-wave radar on the vehicle lamp, please refer to US8803728B2, which discloses a headlamp equipped with the Millimeter-wave radar, which mainly comprises a lighting device unit, a frame body and the Millimeter-wave radar, the lighting device unit may include a projection lens for transmitting light generated by the light source to the outside of the vehicle lamp, a light source for generating a lighting light source, a reflector for reflecting light generated by the light source to the outside of the vehicle lamp, and a light shield for blocking part of reflected light from the reflector, and the millimeter wave radar may include an antenna module, a millimeter wave waveguide, a millimeter wave reflector, and a control module, wherein: the antenna module is used for receiving millimeter waves, the millimeter wave waveguide is used for transmitting millimeter waves, the millimeter wave reflector can reflect millimeter waves generated by the millimeter wave waveguide to the outside of the projection lens, and the control module is used for controlling the antenna module; accordingly, this U.S. patent proposes an invention in which a millimeter wave radar is provided in a vehicle headlamp; there are other references, as follows:

(1) chinese patent No. CN107887686B, "vehicle-mounted array radar antenna and vehicle lamp";

(2) chinese patent No. CN109375191A discloses a method and apparatus for obtaining super-spatial resolution information of co-irradiation source 3D laser radar and 2D detector;

(3) chinese patent No. CN110103810A, "three-dimensional detection lighting system and car";

(4) U.S. patent No. US10421390B2 "LAMP DEVICE";

(5) U.S. patent No. US8803728B2 "Millimeter wave rad-equippedpeadlamp";

(6) U.S. patent No. US2019275923A1 "SENSOR SYSTEM

(7) U.S. patent No. US20180275269a1 "RADAR ARRANGEMENT".

However, the head lamp equipped with the millimeter wave radar proposed by US8803728B2 has a narrow detection range of the millimeter wave radar, and if the detection range of the millimeter wave radar is to be increased, the number of millimeter wave radars must be increased, and if the number of millimeter wave radars is increased, the area of the added millimeter wave radars is increased, which will block the irradiation path of the light source, and increase the detection range of the millimeter wave radar, but also sacrifice the irradiation range of the illumination light, which is more dangerous for the vehicle.

In addition, the vehicle-mounted millimeter wave radar generally adopts a transceiving mode in a phase control array form, and forms a base line by a plurality of groups of antennas to control the beam direction of a transmitting end, but in such a system, the directional gain of a single antenna is generally low, and a beam with complete directivity cannot be formed, so that the problem that different transmitting sources between vehicles interfere with each other may exist, and because the receiving end synthesizes the directional limitation of the beam, even with a more complex algorithm, the interference can be reduced only to a certain extent, so that under the limited signal-to-noise ratio, confusion is easy to generate between signals for detecting a plurality of targets in an angle of view, and under the limited transmitting power, the detectable distance range is limited due to beam dispersion.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above problems, the present inventors have studied and improved millimeter wave radars and vehicle lighting fixtures based on experience in related industries for many years; accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a vehicle lamp system having a millimeter wave radar, in which the millimeter wave radar is provided in a vehicle lamp, and a light source module and a reflector of the vehicle lamp are shared.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar, which is mainly configured on a vehicle, wherein the vehicular lamp system mainly comprises:

a lamp housing, wherein one end group is provided with a lamp shade, the other end group is provided with a reflector, and an accommodating space is formed between the lamp housing and the lamp shade;

an optical module, set up in the space of this containing, a lighting ray that this optical module produces is reflected to this lamp shade through this reflector;

the millimeter wave radar module is assembled on the reflector, and the millimeter wave radar module and the optical module are arranged at opposite positions to drive the millimeter wave radar module to emit and receive at least one millimeter wave signal;

the beam filtering module is arranged between the millimeter wave radar module and the optical module, can reflect the millimeter wave signal and is penetrated by the illumination light; and

the control module is arranged in the lamp shell and coupled with the millimeter wave radar module, drives the millimeter wave radar module to act, and analyzes the received millimeter wave signal to generate driving information.

The millimeter wave radar module is provided with at least one focal plane antenna array, the focal plane antenna array can transmit and receive a millimeter wave signal, so that the vehicle lamp system can carry out radar detection through the millimeter wave signal to generate driving information for a driver to refer to.

The invention also provides a vehicular lamp system with a millimeter wave radar, comprising:

a lamp housing, wherein one end group is provided with a lamp shade, the other end group is provided with a reflector, and an accommodating space is formed between the lamp housing and the lamp shade;

the optical integrated circuit is assembled in the accommodating space and integrates at least one optical module and at least one millimeter wave radar module, and the optical integrated circuit is used for transmitting an illuminating light and a millimeter wave signal to the reflector; and

the control module is arranged in the lamp shell and coupled with the optical integrated circuit, drives the optical integrated circuit to act and analyzes the received millimeter wave signal to generate driving information.

For the purpose of clearly understanding the objects, technical features and effects of the present invention after the implementation thereof, reference is made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic composition diagram (I) of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic composition diagram (II) of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic composition diagram (III) of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic composition diagram (iv) of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram (two) illustrating an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram (iii) of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram (iv) of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram (v) of the present invention.

Fig. 10 shows another embodiment (one) of the present invention.

Fig. 11 shows another embodiment (two) of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic view (a) of a vehicle lamp system 10 according to the present invention is shown, and the vehicle lamp system 10 is assembled on a vehicle carrier 20, the vehicle lamp system 10 can simultaneously emit illumination light and Millimeter waves (Millimeter Wave, EHF), the Millimeter waves are referred to as Extreme High Frequency (EHF), the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves is 1mm to 10mm, the Frequency range is 30GHz to 300GHz, and the Millimeter waves are located in the ranges of microwave and infrared waves in the radio Frequency spectrum, the vehicle lamp system 10 is further coupled to a vehicle power system 201 and a traveling computer host 202 of the vehicle carrier 20, wherein the vehicle power system 201 can supply power required by the vehicle lamp system 10, the traveling computer host 202 can receive Millimeter Wave radar information transmitted by the vehicle lamp system 10 and display the information on the traveling computer host 202, so that the driver can check the radar information and further obtain the information of the distance, the speed and the like of the front vehicle.

Referring to fig. 2 to 3, which are schematic diagrams (two) to (three) illustrating the components of the present invention, as shown in the drawings, a lamp housing 101 is mainly formed in the vehicle lamp system 10 of the present invention, wherein one end of the lamp housing 101 is provided with a lamp cover 102, the other end is provided with a reflector 103, an accommodating space 1011 is formed between the lamp cover 102 and the reflector 103, the reflector 103 is disposed at a position opposite to the lamp cover 102, the reflector 103 is made of a metal conductor material, and can reflect light and millimeter wave signals to the lamp cover 102, so that the light and millimeter wave signals are reflected to the outside of the lamp cover 102 via the reflector 103 for the vehicle 20 (not shown in the drawings) to be used for illumination, and the accommodating space 1011 is further provided with an optical module 104 and a beam filtering module 105, wherein the optical module 104 can generate an illumination light after being driven, the illumination light is irradiated on the reflector 103 to form a reflective light source, the optical module 104 can be one of a light emitting diode, an incandescent lamp, a xenon lamp, or a laser lamp module, or a combination thereof, but any optical element for illumination can be implemented, and the beam filtering module 105 is disposed between the reflector 103 and the optical module 104.

Referring to fig. 3, the beam filtering module 105 is made of a transparent material, so that visible light can freely penetrate through the beam filtering module 105, which can be made of a glass material, a transparent ceramic material, an acrylic material, or other transparent non-conductor materials, and can be implemented, and furthermore, the beam filtering module 105 is further provided with a wave reflecting unit 1051, the wave reflecting unit 1051 is a conductor metal structure with a size of less than 1mm, and can be a conductor wire array or a conductor mesh, so that the wave reflecting unit 1051 can completely reflect electromagnetic waves and can provide light to pass through at the same time.

Referring to fig. 2 again, a millimeter wave radar module 106 is disposed on the surface of the reflector 103, wherein the millimeter wave radar module 106 is composed of a focal plane antenna array, the focal plane antenna includes at least one microwave transmitting unit and at least one microwave receiving unit, the millimeter wave radar module 106 focuses the energy of the electromagnetic wave in a specific direction through the reflector 103 formed by a metal conductor, so as to achieve the accurate detection of the object at a distance, accordingly, the millimeter wave radar module 106 has a higher directional gain, and can concentrate more radio frequency power to detect the object in the specific direction, and also greatly improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the radar, so that the object farther away can be detected, and the millimeter wave radar module 106 sets multiple sets of focal plane antenna arrays (the microwave transmitting unit and the microwave receiving unit) at multiple different positions on the focal plane, and can penetrate through the reflecting plane of the same set of reflector 103, the microwave transmitting unit and the microwave receiving unit can be independently switched on or switched off or can modulate the transmitting power, so that the electromagnetic interference to a target space can be reduced to the maximum extent, the misjudgment of other radar systems can be avoided, the focal plane antenna array can be arranged on the reflector 103 in a phase array mode, and the focal plane array can concentrate the angular resolution of the wave beams.

In addition, since the vehicle lighting may be mainly formed by multiple sets of LEDs in the future, in the embodiment of the present invention, based on that the focal plane array on the reflector 103 can concentrate the beams, multiple vehicle lighting systems 10 can form a specific array distribution in space, and set signal source synchronization of the transceivers (focal plane antennas) in the focal plane array, so that one element (focal plane antenna) of the focal plane array on each reflector 103 and the corresponding element having the same beam direction of the focal plane array on other reflectors can be further combined into a phase array, and thus, the phase array can further refine the resolution angle originally provided by the focal plane array in each beam, wherein each beam of the phase array of the present embodiment can provide an independent viewing angle of 5 to 10 degrees, and the phase array can provide an angular resolution of <1 degree, the two are fused (through digital beam synthesis), so that the imaging radar with wide-view images and high resolution adaptability can be achieved.

Referring to fig. 4, a schematic composition diagram (iv) of the present invention is shown, referring to fig. 1 to fig. 3 in combination, as shown in fig. 1, the vehicular lamp system 10 of the present invention further includes a Control module 107, where the Control module 107 is respectively coupled to the vehicular power system 201, the traveling computer host 202 and the millimeter wave radar module 106, and may be one of a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Microprocessor (MPU), a Microcontroller (MCU), a Graphic Processing Unit (GPU), or a Field Programmable logic array (FPGA); as shown in the figure, the control module 107 may be assembled inside the lamp housing 101, so that the control module 107 may be hidden inside the lamp housing 101, and further avoid a light source irradiation path of the optical module 104 and a millimeter wave signal transmitting and receiving path of the millimeter wave radar module 106, wherein the control module 107 may control the operation of the millimeter wave radar module 106, analyze the reflected millimeter wave signal received by the millimeter wave radar module 106, generate driving information according to an analysis result, and transmit the driving information to the driving computer host 202, and referring to the figure again, the lamp housing 101 is further formed with a second accommodating space 1012, and the control module 107 may be accommodated in the second accommodating space 1012, but not limited thereto.

Referring to fig. 5, which is a schematic view (a) of an implementation of the present invention, as shown in the figure, when the vehicle lamp system 10 of the present invention provides an illumination light source, the optical module 104 generates an illumination light L1, and the illumination light L1 penetrates through the beam filtering module 105, and is reflected by the reflector 103 and then illuminates the outside of the lampshade 102, so as to complete an illumination path of the light, wherein when the optical module 104 is a light emitting diode, the optical module 104 can increase the illumination range of the illumination light L1 under the reflection action of the reflector 103, and the reflection surface of the reflector 103 can be further formed with a diffuse reflection structure, so that the illumination light L1 illuminated out after the illumination light L1 is reflected by the reflector 103 can be more uniform and softer; when the vehicle lamp system 10 provides millimeter wave radar detection, after the control module 107 drives the millimeter wave radar module 106, the millimeter wave radar module 106 transmits a millimeter wave signal L2 through the focal plane antenna array, and transmits a millimeter wave signal L2 to the beam filtering module 105.

Referring to fig. 6, it is shown that the second embodiment of the present invention is implemented, as shown in the drawing, when the millimeter wave signal L2 contacts the beam filtering module 105, the beam filtering module 105 further reflects the millimeter wave signal L2, so that the millimeter wave signal L2 is reflected to the reflector 103, and under the reflection action of the reflector 103, the millimeter wave signal L2 is further reflected to the outside of the lampshade 102, wherein the millimeter wave signal L2 can be further focused through the reflection action of the reflector 103 and the beam filtering module 105, so that the millimeter wave signal L2 can be focused in multiple designated directions to increase the detection range of the millimeter wave radar module 106, and after the millimeter wave signal L2 is reflected by the reflector 103 and the beam filtering module 105, more radio frequency power can be concentrated for detection, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the radar can be greatly increased to detect a farther object.

Referring to fig. 7 to 8, which are schematic diagrams (three) - (four) of the implementation of the present invention, as shown in the figures, the vehicle 20 transmits a millimeter wave signal L2 to another vehicle 20 'on a forward path, when the millimeter wave signal L2 is reflected back to the vehicle 20 by another vehicle 20', the focal plane antenna array of the millimeter wave radar module 106 may receive the reflected millimeter wave signal L2, and the millimeter wave radar module 106 may further transmit the millimeter wave signal L2 to the control module 107, so that the control module 107 analyzes the received millimeter wave signal L2 to generate a driving information, where the driving information may include information such as a previous speed, a previous distance, or a previous position.

Referring to fig. 9, it is shown that the implementation schematic diagram (v) of the present invention is shown, and referring to fig. 4, as shown in the figure, after the control module 107 generates the driving information, the control module 107 can further transmit the driving information D to the driving computer host 202, so that the driver can check the driving information D through the driving computer host 202.

Referring to fig. 10, there is shown another embodiment (a) of the present invention, as shown in the drawing, a vehicular lamp system 10 ' of the present invention is mainly formed with a lamp housing 101 ', a lamp cover 102 ' assembled on top of the lamp housing 101 ', so that an accommodating space 1011 ' is formed between the lamp housing 101 ' and the lamp cover 102 ', further, a reflector 103 ' is assembled at a position opposite to the lamp cover 102 ' at the bottom of the accommodating space 1011 ', the reflector 103 ' can reflect light to the lamp cover 102 ', so that the light is reflected by the reflector 103 ' and then illuminates outside the lamp cover 102 ', so as to provide the vehicle carrier 20 (not shown in the figure) with illumination, and an optical integrated circuit 104 ' is assembled in the accommodating space 1011 ', the optical integrated circuit 104 ' is integrated with an optical module and a millimeter wave radar module, the millimeter wave radar module includes at least one focal plane antenna array, in addition, the lamp housing 101 ' is further formed with a second receiving space 1012 ', a control module 107 ' can be received in the second receiving space 1012 ', and the control module 107 ' is coupled to the optical integrated circuit 104 ', so that the control module 107 ' can control the light action and the millimeter wave signal action of the optical integrated circuit 104 ', in this embodiment, by integrating the optical module and the millimeter wave radar module into the optical integrated circuit 104 ', the assembled vehicular lamp system 10 ' can complete the actions of illumination and millimeter wave radar detection without a beam filtering module, and the volume of the vehicular lamp system 10 ' can be greatly reduced.

Referring to fig. 11, there is shown another embodiment (two) of the present invention, as shown in the drawing, in the vehicular lamp system 10 of the present invention, wherein the control module 107 is coupled with a wireless transmission module 108, the wireless transmission module 108 can be connected to the driving computer host 202 through a wireless connection, so that the control module 107 can transmit the driving information to the driving computer host 202 through a wireless transmission manner, thereby reducing the circuit layout between the vehicular lamp system 10 and the driving computer host 202, which can be a bluetooth transmission module, a wi-fi transmission module, a zigbee module or a 2.4G transmission module, but not limited thereto.

To sum up, the vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar of the present invention is mainly to set the vehicular lamp system on a vehicular carrier, wherein the vehicular lamp mainly has an optical module and at least one millimeter wave radar module, the millimeter wave radar module includes at least one focal plane antenna array, the focal plane antenna array can transmit and receive a millimeter wave signal, so that the vehicular lamp system can perform radar detection through the millimeter wave signal to generate a driving information for driver's reference, furthermore, the millimeter wave radar module of the present invention shares a reflector and a vehicular power system with the optical module to achieve the volume miniaturization of the vehicular lamp system, and the millimeter wave radar module can focus the millimeter wave signal in a designated direction under the reflection action of the reflector and the wave beam filtering module, thereby increasing the detection range of the millimeter wave radar module, the millimeter wave signal can be detected to a longer distance after being focused by energy; accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle lamp system having a millimeter wave radar, in which the millimeter wave radar is installed in a vehicle lamp and a light source module and a reflector of the vehicle lamp are shared.

The above description is only for the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention; all equivalent changes and modifications that can be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention should be covered by the appended claims.

In summary, the present invention has the patent requirements of "industrial applicability", "novelty" and "advancement"; the applicant filed an application of an invention patent to the jun office in accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes.

[ notation ] to show

10 vehicular lamp system

101 lamp shell 102 lampshade

1011 accommodating space

1012 second accommodating space

103 mirror 104 optical module

105 wave beam filtering module 106 millimeter wave radar module

1051 wave reflection unit

107 control module 108 wireless transmission module

20 vehicle carrier 20' another vehicle carrier

201 vehicle electric power system 202 driving computer host

D driving information

L2 millimeter wave signal of L1 lighting light

10' vehicle lamp system

101 'lamp shell 102' lampshade

1011' containing space

1012' second accommodating space

103 'mirror 104' optical integrated circuit

107' control module

Claims (10)

1. A vehicular lamp system having a millimeter wave radar, comprising:

a lamp housing, wherein one end group is provided with a lamp shade, the other end group is provided with a reflector, and an accommodating space is formed between the lamp housing and the lamp shade;

an optical module, set up in the space of this containing, a lighting ray that this optical module produces is reflected to this lamp shade through this reflector;

the millimeter wave radar module is assembled on the reflector, and the millimeter wave radar module and the optical module are arranged at opposite positions to drive the millimeter wave radar module to emit and receive at least one millimeter wave signal;

the beam filtering module is arranged between the millimeter wave radar module and the optical module, can reflect the millimeter wave signal and is penetrated by the illumination light; and

the control module is arranged in the lamp shell and coupled with the millimeter wave radar module, drives the millimeter wave radar module to act, and analyzes the received millimeter wave signal to generate driving information.

2. The vehicular lamp system according to claim 1, wherein the beam filtering module is transparent, and a wave reflecting unit is disposed on a surface of the beam filtering module.

3. The vehicular lamp system according to claim 2, wherein the wave reflecting unit is made of a conductive metal structure arranged in an array arrangement or a mesh arrangement.

4. The vehicular lamp system according to claim 3, wherein the conductor metal structure of the wave reflecting unit has a clearance of less than 1 mm.

5. The vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar of claim 1, wherein the millimeter wave radar module comprises a focal plane antenna array.

6. The vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar of claim 5, wherein the focal plane antenna array is arranged in a phase array on the reflector.

7. The vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar of claim 1, wherein the lamp housing is formed with a second receiving space, and the control module is assembled in the second receiving space.

8. The vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar of claim 1, wherein the control module is coupled to a host computer of a traveling vehicle, and the control module transmits the traveling vehicle information to the host computer of the traveling vehicle for display.

9. The vehicular lamp system with millimeter wave radar of claim 1, wherein a wireless transmission module is coupled to the control module, the wireless transmission module is used for transmitting the driving information.

10. A vehicular lamp system having a millimeter wave radar, comprising:

a lamp housing, wherein one end group is provided with a lamp shade, the other end group is provided with a reflector, and an accommodating space is formed between the lamp housing and the lamp shade;

the optical integrated circuit is assembled in the accommodating space and integrates at least one optical module and at least one millimeter wave radar module, and the optical integrated circuit is used for transmitting an illuminating light and a millimeter wave signal to the reflector; and

the control module is arranged in the lamp shell and coupled with the optical integrated circuit, drives the optical integrated circuit to act and analyzes the received millimeter wave signal to generate driving information.

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